Leave It to Niecy

If nothing else, TLC deserves a "chutzpah" award for promoting "Leave It to Niecy" as the first "docu-sitcom," having apparently missed "The Simple Life" and innumerable other celebrity-oriented examples in the decade since. A comic and actress, Niecy Nash ("Reno 911") has morphed into a reality-TV staple, from "Dancing With the Stars" to her made-for-TLC wedding to Jay Tucker last June. If it works, this latest iteration of her newfound career -- blending their families in carefully plotted, semi-scripted, always-public fashion -- ought to have comedy writers drinking Maalox from the bottle.

If nothing else, TLC deserves a “chutzpah” award for promoting “Leave It to Niecy” as the first “docu-sitcom,” having apparently missed “The Simple Life” and innumerable other celebrity-oriented examples in the decade since. A comic and actress, Niecy Nash (“Reno 911”) has morphed into a reality-TV staple, from “Dancing With the Stars” to her made-for-TLC wedding to Jay Tucker last June. If it works, this latest iteration of her newfound career — blending their families in carefully plotted, semi-scripted, always-public fashion — ought to have comedy writers drinking Maalox from the bottle.

About all that’s missing from “Leave It to Niecy” (aside from jokes about replacing “The Beaver”) is “Wah wah” sounds to punctuate the direct-to-camera interviews with Nash, Tucker, their kids (three hers, one his), and her mother.

Structured like a sitcom, the opening back-to-back episodes feature Niecy trying to come up with bonding exercises for the family, which the children resist; and Niecy scheduling a mammogram in order to coerce Jay to get a knot on his back checked out.

As a comic, Nash has a certain flair for delivering dialogue no doubt discussed at length with producers, even if there are no official writers credited on the show. But the banality of the situations and the cheekiness of the teenage kids only proves that modeling actual family life after TV comedies from the 1990s has serious limitations.

“We gonna have fun, if it kills every last person in this car,” Niecy proclaims as she seeks to prod her kids into a roller-skating excursion.

A “B” plot, such as it is, involves Niecy urging her mother to begin dating. Like the kids, their grandma dutifully hits her mark, though everyone would probably benefit from dialing back the eye-rolling.

TLC hasn’t broken any ground with “Niecy,” but it has found a way to get into comedy on the cheap. And while one can see a modest audience tuning in for Nash’s larger-than-life antics, it’s difficult to imagine what the “story producers” do for an encore beyond eight episodes.

“A family without a hobby sucks!” Niecy declares, as the kids reject her efforts to find a collective activity. Turns out a family without a formal writing staff does, too.

Sign Up for Daily Insider Newsletter

Actress, singer and producer Hailee Steinfeld is set to release a new single entitled “Afterlife” on Sept. 19, a track she created for her upcoming Apple TV Plus series,”Dickinson.” “This is a song I’m incredibly proud of, and I feel like after embodying this character, I have a more fearless approach to my writing,” Steinfeld [...]

“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star Rachel Bloom made a special announcement after winning her Emmy for best original music and lyrics — she is pregnant. Bloom announced the news backstage on Saturday at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. She joked she had planned to reveal the news on Instagram but that doing it at the Emmys was even [...]

RuPaul is hoping to take “Drag Race” to every corner of the world. With multiple international versions of the reality competition series on the air, RuPaul was asked at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards on Saturday how many more versions he would like to see. “How many countries are there?” he said. “There are drag [...]

In its pilot installment, CBS’s new drama “Evil” delves into that which may lie beyond the rationally explicable. And the show itself represents something almost supernatural by 2019 standards, too: A well-made hour fueled by chemistry between its leads and a strong idea of itself. On the basis of its debut outing, which screened at [...]

“Free Solo,” “Queer Eye,” “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Saturday Night Live” were among the big winners Saturday after the first night of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles. “Free Solo,” the National Geographic feature documentary that already claimed the Oscar earlier this year, lead the field on the [...]

The producers and cast of “Mixed-ish” are not out to tell a singular black and white story — but one that showcases and celebrates all shades in between. “It’s important for me across the board in all of my work to talk about ‘otherness’ and identity and real, grounded characters,” showrunner Karin Gist told Variety [...]

“Saturday Night Live” showrunner Lorne Michaels has yet to comment on the racist and homophobic remarks made by newly hired cast member Shane Gillis, but comedians and actors are expressing their condemnation on social media, some even asking that he be fired from the show. Footage of Gillis’s podcast, “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast,” was [...]